Tipperary TD warns Government of possible ‘catastrophic’ broadband blackouts

Tipperary TD Michael Lowry has warned of the possibility of “catastrophic” broadband blackouts across large swathes of the country if a leading supplier withdraws before the National Broadband Plan (NBI) rollout is completed.

Despite being plagued by delays, National Broadband Ireland has stated that it is confident that all areas will be completed by the beginning of 2028, said Independent TD Michael Lowry.

As a result, existing commercial suppliers of broadband, like ‘Imagine’, have an immediate and serious financial viability problem, he said.

“They are now closely examining their immediate future in the market and the outlook for them is bleak without Government support,” Deputy Lowry told the Taoiseach during Leaders Questions on Tuesday. “Imagine currently have 47,000 customers across every county in Ireland with 2,400 of these in Tipperary.

“These are predominantly rural connections. If Imagine is forced to wind down in the coming months without a planned transition to NBI there will be a broadband blackout for an unsuspecting 47,000 customers,” he said.

“The impact of this would be catastrophic. Allowing the unplanned wind-down of this commercial provider would set the impacted regions across the country back years.

“The threat posed to businesses, to emergency and medical services, to schools, remote workers, farmers and to all local service providers is incalculable.

“Community centres, local charities and sports clubs would lose an invaluable local link. Communicating online with loved ones abroad would become almost impossible,” outlined Deputy Lowry, adding that positive advancements made around rural regions of the country would begin to evaporate. Restoring them could realistically take decades.

"Provisions must be made for the real possibility that thousands of people in Tipperary and across the country are facing blackout if private Broadband suppliers pull the plug on the only services currently available to them and at the moment we’re drifting towards that scenario. “I ask that the Minister redouble his efforts to find a solution,” he said.

Taoiseach Simon Harris told Deputy Lowry that he wants to ensure that such a scenario does not arise.

In relation to Tipperary, he said that the county will see an investment of €118 million under the National Broadband Plan. Some 31,000 premises in Tipperary will be connected in total, and over 17,000 can already order.